I’m going to be completely honest here and tell you that I didn’t know much about St. Louis before going to conduct the Pinkle Toes lifestyle family photography workshop there this past July. Well, I knew there was an arch and I knew the Cardinals played there and that’s pretty much all. But let me assure you that St. Louis–in spite of the miserable humidity and heat this summer–showed me a fantastic time with an equally fantastic group of people! Upon arriving, I was lucky enough to get to bum around the city with my good friend Heidi  (a talented photographer in the St. Louis area and a past Pinkle Toes workshop attendee; you’ll get to see more of Heidi below, actually!). She even took me to a Cards game (where we also hung out with some other photog pals Stacy and Janie).

The workshop itself (hosted by newborn and family photographer Anne Meintrup of Edwardsville, IL) was jam packed and we literally were at 100% from sun up to well past sun down each day! I’m so proud of the girls for sticking with me and hanging in there for our intensive schedule. Our first photo session demonstration was an in-home lifestyle newborn session with the snuggliest baby boy in the world!!!! It was such a great honor to get to work with this family (of FOUR boys) IN their home because it’s the home mom grew up in!

Later on that day, we headed out to the City Museum of St. Louis for Heidi’s urban family photo session demonstration. Unfortunately, the museum was closed, but it is on my bucket list to go back there…when it’s open…WITH my kiddos because there is NO place like this on earth. Wow! Wow! Wow! What I wouldn’t give to have the chance to take my kiddos up here (there’s even a ferris wheel on top of the roof, too)!!! Lucky for us, however, it offered plenty of super cool spots outside in which we could work (how do you like the perfectly timed taxi photo bomb?):

 And yeah, Heidi is kinda gorgeous, inside and out. Oh, one of my favs is HERE!

And finally, after we were all good and sweaty ;-), we headed over to Forest Park to capture a beautiful expecting couple set against the backdrop of a PERFECT sunset:

Quite a spectacular end to a spectacular day!

For what it’s worth, I did make it to the arch. Twice, actually. Even went so far as to buy the tickets to go up, but I was too chicken. It’s not heights that scare me, but the thought of being crammed into that egg did me in ;-).

At any rate, thank you St. Louis for an amazing few days. Thank you, Anne, for all you did to make this workshop happen. Thank you, Heidi, for giving me such a wonderful St. Louis experience. And thank you to all of the workshop attendees for being such a fun and interactive and can-do group:

• Brooke Boyer Photography – www.brookeboyerphotography.com – St. Louis Metro Area
• Caroline Strong Photography- www.carolinestrongphotography.com – St. Louis, MO
• Jessica Ebeler Photography – www.jessicaebeler.com – St. Louis MO
• Susie Vreeland Photography – http://blog.susievreeland.com – St. Louis, MO

(Will be posting the full list of attendees soon!)

Speaking of things coming up soon: I’m *almost* ready to announce the workshop calendar for 2014. I can tell you this…it’s going to be hectic and it’s going to involve travel to some new and far away places ;-). Intrigued? Make sure you’re on the list to find out everything as soon as it’s announced!

Was this really back in January? It truly doesn’t even seem like it was that long ago. What a FANTASTIC workshop group we had here and if it looks like we were having a blast in these pictures, it’s true…we did! Our in home newborn session demonstration was a dream and can you even believe the smile on that precious baby girl? (see it bigger). And, of course, there’s one pic not shown here. If you want to see that one, you’ll have to go HERE.

We had an equally amazing photo session with our family in downtown Austin later that evening:

Quick story: a workshop attendee asked me to demonstrate some poses with people lying down, so we had mom + daughter lay down on the ground for us. I asked them to get a little closer and they ended up with the worst forehead bump:

OMG! I felt soooooooo bad, but at least we all had a good laugh (cry?) over it.

And, some more fun random pics from the workshop:

Goodness me! What a talented and fun and smart and witty group of ladies! Each time I would open up a folder of pics sent my them, my jaw would just hit the floor. Man they rocked it! Check out their sites here:

• Kami Friday Photography – NH and Northern New Englandwww.kamifridayphotography.com
• The Life in Your Years Photography – NYC, Westchester County and Southern Connecticut http://www.thelifeinyouryearsphotography.com
• Little Branch Photo – Houston, TX – www.littlebranchphoto.com
• Paula Scherr Photography – Edmonton, Alberta Canadawww.paulascherrphoto.com
• Caroline Martin Photography – San Diego, CAwww.CarolineMartinPhotography.com
• Photo Jolie – Dallas, Texas www.photojolie.com/
• Laurie Herrera Photography – Dallas, Texas www.laurieherreraphoto.com

The ONLY workshop I have coming up with openings is in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in August. That is it. I know many folks have requested to be on wait lists for St. Louis and Charlotte, but that list is really long :-(. Oh, did I mention that we are planning a MAJOR Pinkle Toes Photography Workshop reunion in New York City in Spring of 2014? Very excited about that…loads of fun activities are in the works as well as a charity project. (Check out my post from Chicago’s reunion last summer…that should give you an idea of the whirlwind to expect ;-). 

Finally on the blog!!! Yay!!!! This workshop was the perfect way to kick of 2013! On day one, we all got to finally meet and chit chat and had fun playing with sunflare and headshots. After a laaaaaaaate night 😉 it was early to rise for an amazing in-home lifestyle newborn session demonstration:

Later that afternoon, we headed into downtown Austin to experiment photographing a family in an urban setting:

It was so crazy…it was sunny, sunny, sunny all day long and then wooosh! All of a sudden, in true Austin fashion, the wind picked up and the sun disappeared and we were out in the elements like Nat Geo photogs ;-). By the by, you should know that I don’t believe I’ve ever worked with siblings who were as connected and fun-loving as those two cuties were. They made me look really good that day. A little too good 😉

I present to you the Pinkle Toes Graduating Class of January 2013! Sharp looking group, huh? When you get some time, I highly recommend you check these ladies out:

• Sabrina K Photography Pearland and Houston, TX: http://sabrinakphotography.com/blog
• Captured by Chrissy in McKinney, TX: http://capturedbychrissy.com/blog
• Beth Fenwick in San Francisco Bay Area, Redwood City, CA: http://bethfenwick.com
• Claire Hill Photography in  Houston and The Woodlands, TX:  http://www.clairehillphotography.com/blog
• Leslie Clawson Photography in Frisco TX: http://www.leslieclawsonphotography.com
• CK Design & Photography in MA http://ckdesignphoto.blog.com/
• Dear Ellison Photography in San Antonio, TX and surrounding areas: https://www.facebook.com/dearellisonphotography

Sadly, I don’t have any more workshops coming up in Austin (no room in my schedule ;-(). If we missed you, you can always chat with me about the Toronto, Canada workshop this August (very much looking forward to that one…my very first visit to Canada!) or if that’s too far for you, maybe we can talk about online mentoring.

*Someone* had a birth day today ;-). I’ll give you a hint…you can’t really see him in these pics ;-). I found that to be incredibly convenient because this someone + his family happen to be the models for the in-home newborn photo session demonstration at the first January workshop! There are two–yes, only TWO–openings left for the Austin lifestyle photography workshops in 2013. I do not have any more Austin workshops on the calendar at this time, so please don’t miss out if this is something you’ve been thinking about attending. You’ll need to complete the contact form on that page to get the dates, pricing, and other details.

Meanwhile, I’ll just wait around here until I can get my hands on him for his newborn session part A in the next week or two ;-).

This little dude and I have been hanging out for a few years now, but this session was probably one of my favs. Basically, we just let him explore and do the things he wanted to do and we followed along. He loves his parents. He loves is little go car. And he loves apples! {Still my FAV from this session}

Oh man…just realized I never shared the images from his session at the Pinkle Toes photography workshop earlier this year! Silly me!

And some super fun behind-the-scenes pics from that day:

[images by myself, Claire, and Michelle]

What fun it was to look back at these images! Fantastic group of ladies and so much talent, it was unreal! Oh, and it rained like you wouldn’t believe. So much so, this happened. Miss you girls. Miss your humor, too 😉. In case you wanted to visit it, here are pics from our newborn session from this workshop. Oh, by the by: one of these ladies from this workshop is actually hosting the Charlotte, NC workshop!!! Awesome!!!!

While we’re on the subject of workshops, just wanted to remind you (or let you know if you didn’t already know) that today, November 1st, is the last day to qualify for the $100 discount for reserving your spot in a 2013 Pinkle Toes (only) workshop. If you need the full details (dates, pricing, etc.) fill out the contact form on this page.

Back in 2011, I had the pleasure of meeting Megan Grommes of Megan Crown Photography (Twin Cities) at one of my professional family photographer workshops. Totally out of the blue, I got this note from her a few days ago:

I read your blog post about lighting and people’s houses and wanted to share this: That was one thing I feel I learned from the workshop and PT4P – finding light and making it work in client’s houses. I love this session. The thing is – there was literally NO LIGHT except for one window. Before I would have freaked out! However I was calm and used that one window for all it was worth and I really liked the results – so thank you for your mentorship! I appreciate what you had to teach us.

Megan…that was super cool to hear and man, I love that session, too. I think you did a phenomenal job of working with what you had. The way you used the light captured the perfect amount of emotion and drama and yet, it’s still soft and newborn-like. Well done!

In case you all might like to see some of the work that Megan did at the workshop in Austin, here are just a few of my favs from her:

And, for goodness sake, please be sure to check out Megan’s phenomenal birth photography as well. You’ll be glad that you did!

Regarding the 2013 Pinkle Toes workshops, the deadline is literally just a few weeks away to receive the first $100 discount, so if you want to reserve your spot, you’ll want to do that ASAP.

P.S. I think most photogs out there already know that this is peak holiday season right now, so my communication on the blog and e-mail is going to be sporadic at best ;-). [Of course, I do still Instagram a lot, LOL, because it’s faster and easier and doesn’t require me to be at my computer or using Lightroom]. I have gotten several e-mails wondering if I’m still going to follow up with my little experiment and the answer is of course! I just need some time to sit down and write out a thoughtful response. Thanks so much for your patience, gang!

They say the grass is greener. So I had to take another look. If you’ll recall, I switched from Canon to Nikon in 2010. Now, two years later, I guess I must be getting bored ;-). Thought I’d do a little side by side comparison with my Nikon D700 50mm 1.4 (which I currently own) and the Canon 5D miii 50mm 1.2 (just because I hear all of my colleagues raving over this camera). I’ll let you know what my personal verdict is in the follow up post. Meanwhile, feel free to weigh in…

Also…still gauging workshop interest and possible locations for 2013. You’ll definitely want to check out THIS PAGE and fill out the form “let me know” if you want to be notified when we decide.

They can go from this: